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Hey I feel like a broken record here but check out gemini! It's a new protocol and the community is great. There are portals at portal.mozz.us and proxy.vulpes.one if you want to get your feet wet. There's good content in there!
4 votes
rmgr
July 24, 2020
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I want to get in to Gemini/Gopher but I'm not sure I get it.
Why should I use Gemini/Gopher?
1 vote
acdw
July 24, 2020
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I don't know if I can speak to why you should use Gemini/Gopher -- there's no real reason -- but I can tell you why I like them and use them (really I just use gemini -- gophermaps never clicked with me, writing-wise, though sometimes I read some phlogs):
The Web, as it is now, is big and hairy. It's owned mostly by, like, 5 giant companies that track you every chance they get. They commoditize people and ideas and repackage them as "content".
The Web, as it is now, is also largely bloated. Web pages take seconds to load, largely because of all the tracking stuff I just mentioned. The Web was built as a document-sharing system but it's grown into its own operating system.
Of course, I still use the Web every day -- I use it for work, for fun, I'm using it now, etc. There are good parts to the Web -- tildes is one of them, and there are a lot of personal websites that are nice or fun or just non-commercial spaces that I really appreciate.
So you might be thinking, "Why not just have a 'small web' space, or somewhere that's not commercial?" Well, you can! There's no one stopping us. There's the IndieWeb and Fediverse and all sorts of things that are trying to move toward a more sustainable, more human, less commercial web.
However, it's still the Web. You can still too easily jump out of that safe space into the wider world of trackers and javascript autoplaying videos and selling you stuff you don't need.
Using text-based protocols, like Gopher and Gemini, build that wall between the "small web" (some call it the smol web) and the big bad Web a little higher -- while you can link to HTTP content from either (it's really easy in Gemini), it'll be more obvious that you're about to head to a different space -- it's right there in the protocol. Whereas linking from the "safe Web" to the "unsafe Web" is more complicated -- you'd have to have a list of "safe" websites, either in your head or downloaded from somewhere, to check against. And what do you do if safesite.com is bought out by MegaCorp? Then MegaCorp can inject it with all sorts of trackers/webworkers/whatever so that what was a safe link isn't any more.
With a text-only protocol like Gopher or Gemini, it's actually impossible -- or really, really hard -- to track people in the same way as it is on the Web. The protocol -- the language servers and clients speak -- simply doesn't allow it. There's no word for it in the language.
What I really like about Gemini is that it explicitly states that it's a protocol alongside the Web -- which means that, even if it gets really popular, commercial interests have less of a reason to try and commoditize it, since they'll still have all the tracking and stuff they love on the Web. It won't be worth it for them to figure out how to commercialize Geminispace.
AND, because it's text-only (no inline images, etc), one of the main vectors of advertising -- the image -- is unable to hijack your attention. Users know what they're getting into, all the time. I like that a lot.
I hope that explains it a little bit. If you like writing and reading, and small communities, Gemini can be a lot of fun. I've been in a few sort of "threads" where I'll post something on my site, then it'll be responded to, and I'll respond back, kind of like linkbacks on blogs or whatever. It's also great to read about other people's hobbies and interests and projects they're working on.
So basically, Gemini and Gopher are different protocols, like the Web, but either designed before the Web (Gopher) or designed in response to the Web (Gemini) in a way that they create sort of intentional communities. Or something.
For more information, you can see this post by solderpunk, the originator of Gemini, that talks about why a "safe web" isn't really a doable goal. I'll think if there are others and link them here too.
4 votes
rmgr
July 25, 2020
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That sounds right up my alley! It sort of sounds like a similar appeal to using a BBS to be honest!
Now I've just got to think of something to write about...
1 vote
acdw
July 25, 2020
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Just start writing! It's great to read about people's weekends, days, joys, annoyances, even sorrows.
There's a good amount of places where you can get free shell/sftp accounts to post, too -- the easiest is gemlog.blue (there's an HTML form that you can post to from the Big Web), but there's gemini.circumlunar.space, tannelorn.city, breadpunk.club, tilde.black, tilde.pink, etc., etc.
fleg
July 24, 2020
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My understanding is that the main upside of those is how simple they are. Thanks to that:
implementation is easier, making creating server and client implementations approachable for hobbyists (comparing that to a web browser, where probably no new contender to the Chrome/Firefox can realistically appear without a huge investment)
since it is less popular, it's populated mostly by hobbyists and people who want to make something interesting there, with more experiments and fun things and less commercial websites trying to sell you things, track you and appeal to the lowest common denominator
because of it's simplicity, it's not possible to use it in a commercial way as HTML+JS can be used, as you can't add tracking code, advertisement possibilities are limited etc.
I see it as an attempt to recreate the old web of the 90's, where it was new and filled with hobbyists, with less people seeing it as a way to mainly make money. It won't take over today's web, but nobody really wants it to do so.
3 votes
salis
(OP)
July 24, 2020
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Thanks! I tried a search engine on Mozz, but seems hard to find good/regular blogs with no specific direction. Anything you’d recommend to check out?
1 vote
acdw
July 24, 2020
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I check CAPCOM and Spacewalk waaay too often -- like they only update every 6 hours or so but I check em way more than that. Otherwise, I'd recommend just poking around different people's blogs and see what they link to.
If you use a Gemini client like kristall, konpeito.media is a great site with mixtapes -- though they're down sometimes. Sloum also has their music up on gemini://gemini.circumlunar.space/~sloum/ though I haven't listened to it.
2 votes
salis
(OP)
July 26, 2020
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Interesting, I’ll give it a try!
1 vote
unknown user
July 26, 2020
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https://markmanson.net/ – Mark used to be known as a dating-advice guy, but he's expanded his blog's outlook over the last several years.
3 votes
m15o
July 26, 2020
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You might be interested by https://midnight.pub - an anti-social media place that's the equivalent of a virtual pub.
3 votes
Don_Camillo
July 24, 2020
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https://slatestarcodex.com/ is back online, just dive in some random topic that loks interesting.
2 votes
JakeTheDog
July 24, 2020
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This is an amazing blog about ideas in books, the author, Maria Popova, is well read and very thoughtful: https://www.brainpickings.org/
1 vote
salis
(OP)
July 26, 2020
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Love brainpickings.
salis
(OP)
July 27, 2020
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I've been going through all those suggestions during the past couple days and I am preparing some on my own: I'm especially fond of smaller personal blogs—they're harder to find, but sometimes really worth it (almost like comments and feedback on Tildes).
1 vote